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AS 65TH ANNIVERSARY OF PEARL HARBOR APPROACHES,

A SURVIVOR REMEMBERS -- "I had just poured the milk on

my cereal and there was this terrible explosion."

 

 

Story here... http://www.kvpostnews.com/articles/2006/11/21/news/news02.txt

Story below.

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65th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor approaches, a survivor remembers

by Cindy Ward/Staff Writer

The metal that stabilizes humanity

As Bernard Tysen walked into the kitchen to talk about his experience as a Pearl Harbor survivor, a thick, white, poodle-looking dog barked. Tysen smiled and let the dog out onto the patio, “He sees a squirrel. He doesn't know he can't catch it any way.” explained Tysen smiling.

Relaxed, Tysen's easy-going demeanor never changed as he spoke of the attack on Pearl Harbor. But as he graciously told the annals-laden story it was clear the event was personal and had etched a poignant memory on his then 21-year-old mind.

On December 7, it will be 65 years since Bernard Tysen, stationed at Hickam Field Air Base, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, witnessed Japan's attack on America. He was eating Rice Crispies cereal.

Tysen, one of the few men awake in his barracks, was up early to go to breakfast, then to church. It was a beautiful, sunny morning. The chow hall building was solid part way up, said Tysen, making a gesture about three feet from the floor, “The rest was screened in all the way around, so we had a good view of the whole base from there. I had just poured the milk on my cereal and there was about a half a dozen of us. We heard this terrible explosion.”

Jumping up, the men gathered at the screened window. “I could see all this smoke and I see this plane moving out, and it still didn't register,” said Tysen. At first it seemed to Tysen that something had exploded. And the plane didn't mean anything at first either, since Hickam was a bomber squadron and the planes flew all the time. “Then I saw a big red circle on the wing and I said to the guys ‘That's the Japanese.'”

“I went to wake the guys up in my barracks. We would dive under the barracks, which were built up on stilts, to get away from the planes.”

Tysen said the the attack probably lasted two to three hours. At first the Japanese planes were strafing, shooting at the men on the ground. “Then the high flying ones were dropping bombs - but not on us - on Pearl Harbor,” said Tysen.

“At one point in the attack they told us we could go to supply and get weapons. There was one guy there, with mattresses all around him, handing out 45 automatic pistols with a box of bullets and a clip. And I had never been trained on anything like that. I was in the Air force. So I just carried the gun in one hand and the bullets and clip in the other because I didn't know how to load it, “ said Tysen with a gentle smile that showed an understanding the irony of the situation, but which held no malice.

Hickams planes had been lined up outside the hangers and were easy targets for the Japanese. Tysen's squadron serviced the planes. “Our squadron was dissolved because we worked with the planes, and we didn't have any more planes, so we were unattached,” said Tysen.

Tysen applied to be a cadet pilot and passed the written and physical exams. One month after the attack, he was headed state-side for pilot training, aboard The President Johnson, a luxury liner confiscated for war use.

Three days into the trip, while standing guard, Tysen had a terrible pain in his chest, and called out to a doctor who was taking a nightly stroll.

Tysen said he must have passed out, because the next thing he remembered was waking up in the ship's hospital. He spent three days in sick bay. Then one month in a military hospital in San Francisco. Then, as hospital beds on the coast were badly needed because of the war, he was shipped to O'Riley General Hospital in Springfield, Missouri. At that time he found out he had received shrapnel to the chest during the Pearl Harbor attack. Many men Tysen knew had gotten hit by shrapnel and didn't know it until later, when the shrapnel started working its way out of the body. Tysen's had caused bleeding in the lungs. Six months later the Air Force discharged him.

Tysen said the war changed him. It changed everything. “I was on my way to be a pilot,” said Tysen.

Evelyn Tysen, who had entered the room during the story, stayed quite until Bernard looked at her to help recall a particular age or number. But she spoke now unprompted, “The metal detectors at the air ports just go nuts. He has to practically strip down,” said Evelyn.

The Japanese material embedded in Tysen's chest 65 years ago, remains to this day, exactly where it landed.

The couple spoke generously of their lives. Bernard worked several jobs after the war. Then he had an egg route, which he sold after 12 years. He worked as a manager at Sam DeCooke's grocery store in DeMotte. Then, almost on a fluke, he purchased DeCooke's grocery store.

In 1972 the couple started Tysen's grocery store. “Our son took it on when he (Bernard) retired, and our son built the Wheatfield and Kouts stores,” said Evelyn.

Bernard never flew as an Air Force pilot. But, nearly three and a half decades later Bernard did become a pilot, at age 55, and just for pleasure.

The couple spoke gently of the war in Iraq, and they spoke of how times have changed.

Bernard said he remembered the school bus, “When I was in the grades, they had a thing that looked like a stage coach, and it was pulled by two mules. And the kids entered through the back. That was our school bus.”

“Bernard will be 88,” said Evelyn.

“Like the Oldsmobile,” Bernard added.

Bernard's next comment was said in the same even tones as the rest of the conversation, but it visibly jarred Evelyn, who squeezed his hand and shook her head in disagreement.

Bernard said smiling, “I think the good Lord won't let you be around through the next generation, because the change is so big you couldn't take it.” Bernard softly returned Evelyn's squeeze, then went to the patio. The thick, squirrel-less poodle waddled into a cushioned chair, then snapped its head toward the yard and barked with authority.

Bernard's eye's reflect the same rock-steady, pleasantness of his smile, as he said, “He just can't understand, he's not going to get that squirrel.”

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Larry Scott